Department Of Cell And Developmental Biology

Vanderbilt investigators have discovered a molecular mechanism that promotes chronic kidney disease following kidney injury. Read More

Researchers in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine have received three grants totaling $13.6 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop molecular “atlases” of the brain, kidney, eye and other tissues. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers are studying precancerous lesions and early cancers in the colon, with the goal of developing new ways to prevent colorectal cancer, the nation’s second leading cancer killer. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have discovered a nanoparticle released from cells, called a “supermere,” which contains enzymes, proteins and RNA associated with multiple cancers, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease and even COVID-19. Read More

Sabine Fuhrmann and colleagues have discovered a novel underlying cause of coloboma — a birth defect that causes missing tissue in the eye and accounts for up to 10% of childhood blindness. Read More

William Tansey and colleagues identified proteins that interact with the cancer drug target WDR5 and are important for cancer cell growth. Read More

Vanderbilt researchers have identified a new molecular partner — and potential therapeutic target — in a signaling axis that drives lung cancer. Read More

A new method that keeps microbes and gut cells together will be useful for studies of complex host-microbe interactions and for analysis of clinical specimens. Read More

It might be possible to use vesicles carrying the receptor for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to bind the virus and prevent infection. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have identified a key factor that coordinates the body’s repair response to severe injury in the stomach caused, most commonly, by infection by the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. Read More

Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center have generated the first comprehensive molecular “atlas” of genes expressed by the neuronal cells within the intestine that coordinate the functions of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Read More

Vanderbilt scientists have discovered a new target for normalizing tumor blood vessels to improve cancer immunotherapies. Read More

Deborah Lannigan and colleagues identify a key regulator of the estrogen receptor and suggest that its downregulation by oral contraceptives may increase oxidative stress and DNA damage, a common cause of cancer. Read More

Vanderbilt cell biologists are defining the factors that help beta cells in the pancreas stay healthy, secrete insulin and prevent diabetes initiation and progression. Read More

Scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona, have discovered previously unreported genetic and cellular changes that occur in the lungs of people with pulmonary fibrosis (PF). Read More

Vanderbilt cell biologists have developed an unbiased, quantitative framework for evaluating single-cell data. Read More

Dylan Burnette and colleagues have discovered that two forms of the molecular motor protein myosin have distinct roles in regulating cell shape during cell division. Read More

A multidisciplinary team of investigators at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a program project grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore extracellular RNA in colorectal cancer. Read More

Jennifer Sucre and colleagues have discovered a factor that contributes to the pathological changes of bronchopulmonary dysplasia, the most common complication of preterm birth. Read More

MYC is a family of three related proteins that are overexpressed in cancer and which contribute to an estimated 100,000 cancer deaths annually in the United States. Understanding how MYC works could lead to the development of new drugs that can effectively block MYC and stop many cancers in their tracks. Read More